Estimation of the Central Rhodope Sheep pedigree quality in 2005-2023

Abstract

The aim of this study was to estimate the quality of the Central Rhodope Sheep pedigree data in years 2005-2023. The data was provided by the Association for breeding Central Rhodope sheep, Karakachan sheep and Rhodope Cigay sheep, which is keeping the breed’s herdbook. The herdbook has 18 720 records for the studied period. Along with the individuals registered only as sires or dams, there were 22686 individuals in total in the pedigree file. The pedigree was processed by the OptiSel software package and then checked for errors with the PedigreeViewer software. All the inconsistencies found in the pedigree, cycles and the gender discrepancies, were solved by erasing the conflicting data. In total 565 sires and 12 156 dams were identified in the pedigree file. The maximum number of generations traced for an animal in the pedigree were six. Since 2014, the average pedigree completeness index is over 98% for the first generation, and for second and third increases from 58% to 100%, and from 38% to 94%, respectively. In the recent five years, the average number of equivalent generations by year of birth is between 2.145 to 3.159, and the average number of full generations 1.839 to 2.537. These results indicate that the cumulated pedigree data might be used for analyses of the population structure and genetic diversity of the Central Rhodope Sheep breed.